Estimates of Healthcare-Associated Infections

CDC strives to understand how healthcare-associated infections happen and to develop appropriate interventions. A new report from CDC updates previous estimates of healthcare-associated infections. In American hospitals alone, healthcare-associated infections account for an estimated 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths each year. Of these infections:

32 percent of all healthcare-associated infection are urinary tract infections
22 percent are surgical site infections
15 percent are pneumonia (lung infections)
14 percent are bloodstream infections

Fact Sheets

Publications

The Direct Medical Costs of Healthcare-Associated Infections in U.S. Hospitals and the Benefits of Prevention 2009 PDF 836 KB / 16 pages
This report uses results from the published medical and economic literature to provide a range of estimates for the annual direct medical hospital cost of treating healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in the United States.
Estimating Health Care-Associated Infections and Deaths in U.S. Hospitals, 2002. Public Health Reports (PDF 241KB 7 pages)

Slide Presentation

Burden estimates to support prioritization of public health problems PowerPoint slide set (176KB)

Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.

Date last modified: March 12, 2010
Content source:
Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP)
National Center for Preparedness, Detection, and Control of Infectious Diseases

Infection Control Topics

Infection Control Resources

HAIs: Recovery Act - provides information on obtaining funding through the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) and Emerging Infections Program (EIP).
HICPAC - Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee
Bioterrorism - Emergency Preparedness & Response